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Friday, September 09, 2011

DearMYRTLE,Hi! For the last few years, I've been researching my family history, and I've gotten to the point where any records that would contain further information will probably be written either in Polish or German. I've tracked my ancestry back to about 1800, and my 3rd-great grandfather immigrated shortly after that. I am wondering if you have records from the Poland/Germany region from the 1700s, and what the process would be for ordering & viewing them. -- Thank you!

DearMELISSA,

Viewing documents created in churches, courthouses and archives is complicated when we don't live in those ancestral locations on the globe. When you've exhausted the low-hanging fruit using US resources available, your research can now take a five-pronged approach:

1. Learn from the experts - look for the work of these experts in genealogy publications both on and off line, and consider hiring them when you really hit a brick wall.

FamilySearch has 4,500+ local Family History Centers located in countries throughout the world. World-wide roll-out of online microfilm/fiche ordering is scheduled to occur in late October 2011, where as right now only specific regions of the US and Canada are doing the final beta testing. At that time, all the film numbers in the FamilySearch Catalog will change to clickable links that take researchers to the online ordering system. To locate a Family History Center near you, visit: https://www.familysearch.org/locations.

4. Communicate with the distant courthouse, church or archive only when you cannot locate the records you require online on or microfilm.